Book of Discipline (Church of Scotland)

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First Book of Discipline
)

The Book of Discipline refers to two works regulative of

Mary Queen of Scots and was much more clearly Presbyterian in outlook. It placed church supervision fully in the hands of groups of elected church leaders in presbyteries
.

Background

In 1560, following the death of the regent Mary of Guise, who ruled on behalf of her daughter Mary, Queen of Scots who was in France and the defeat of French forces at the Siege of Leith, the reform-minded Lords of the Congregation were in the ascendency in Scotland.[1] The Scottish Parliament met in Edinburgh 1 August 1560.[2] Ignoring the provisions of the Treaty of Edinburgh, on 17 August, Parliament approved a Reformed Confession of Faith (the Scots Confession), and on 24 August it passed three Acts that abolished the old faith in Scotland. Under these, all previous acts not in conformity with the Reformed Confession were annulled; the sacraments were reduced to two (Baptism and Communion) to be performed by reformed preachers alone; the celebration of the Mass was made punishable by a series of penalties (ultimately death) and Papal jurisdiction in Scotland was repudiated.[3] The Queen declined to endorse the acts that Parliament had passed and the new kirk existed in a state of legal uncertainty.[4]

First Book of Discipline

The Lords had intended for the parliament to consider a Book of Reformation, that they had commissioned and which was largely the work of

John Douglas and John Row, to produce a revised version.[5] While Knox, Spottiswood and Willock were long committed Protestants, Windram, Douglas and Row had until recently been pillars of the Catholic establishment and the composition of the committee may have been intended as a compromise. However, the members worked well together and produced a radical plan for church reform.[6] The result of the delay was that the document, known as the First Book of Discipline was not considered by the full parliament, but a thinly attended convention of nobles and about 30 lairds, in January 1561 and then only approved individually and not collectively.[7]

The book set out a system of

superintendents, ministers, doctors, elders and deacons.[8] It also contained a programme of parish-based reformation that would use the resources of the old church to pay a network of ministers, a parish based school system, university education and arrangements for poor relief. However, the proposal for the use of church wealth were rejected and under an Act of Council, which kept two-thirds in the hands of its existing owners and even the remaining third had to be shared with the Crown. The result was an abandonment of the educational programme, ministers remained poorly paid and the church was underfunded.[9]

Second Book of Discipline

In July 1567, Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her 13-month-old son

synods and the general assembly.[8]

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-7486-1455-9
    , p. 211.
  2. ISBN 0-7486-0276-3
    , p. 117.
  3. ISBN 0140136495
    , p. 153.
  4. ISBN 0748614869
    , p. 48.
  5. ^ Fleming, David Hay (1910). The Reformation in Scotland : causes, characteristics, consequences. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 250ff.
  6. ISBN 0300114737
    , p. 200.
  7. ISBN 0-7126-9893-0
    , p. 197.
  8. ^
    ISBN 0664218822
    , p. 103.
  9. ^ Mackie, Lenman and Parker, A History of Scotland, pp. 154–5.
  10. ISBN 0-224-60572-0
    , p. 19.
  11. ISBN 1-86064-588-7
    , p. 183.

External links
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